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Talonflame
Talonflame (Japanese: ファイアロー Fiarrow) is a dual-type Fire/Flying Pokémon. It evolves from Fletchinder starting at level 35. It is the final form of Fletchling. Appearance Talonflame is an avian Pokémon closely resembling falcons. Its plumage is predominantly red-orange, with gray underparts and black tips on its long, pointed wings. Ovular orange spots dot its underside, and flame patterns mark the boundaries between colors on its body. Large yellow talons extend from the shaggy feathers on its legs. Talonflame has a pointed crest atop its head and a black and yellow mask-like pattern around its eyes. Its black beak is hooked with a yellow cere. It also has long black tail-feathers marked with three yellow "v"-shapes. The tail ends in two points and has a another feather sticking out of the base on each side, giving the impression of the fletching on the end of an arrow. Impact on the Pokémon franchise and metagame At the very beginning of Generation VI, Talonflame looked like it was going to be just another sub-par earlygame bird Pokémon that would have little to no impact on the competitive metagame. Then, just a day after the release of Pokémon X and Y, Talonflame's Hidden Ability was discovered. It was called "Gale Wings". In essence, it added +1 priority to any and all of the user's Flying-type moves. Coincidentally... ...No, not coincidentally. This is TrollFreak that we're talking about. Anyway... ...Talonflame just happened to have access to Brave Bird, one of the most powerful Flying-type attacks in the game. In a nutshell, this meant that Talonflame has access to an extremely powerful attack that would almost always move first. Talonflame, naturally, rose in popularity and usage, eventually claiming a throne in the metagame's Overused Tier. It was the cause of the downfall of many of the metagame's formerly formidable Fighting-types. (Example: Infernape, originally one of OU's indisputably most versatile and powerful Pokémon, got kicked downstairs to the Underused Tier because Talonflame was just too much for it.) Relevance to the Fire Emblem: Awakening Message Board Not much, really. However, it does have a certain claim to fame there: it's StudiousThug's sole Berserk Button. Thug views Talonflame as a menace to the Pokémon metagame and has been clamoring for it to be banned to Ubers since he learned of Infernape's demotion to UU. His accusations against it are as follows: Unfortunately, people tend not to take Thug seriously when he starts railing against Pokemon #663, listing the prevalence of Stealth Rock (aka Sneaky Pebbles) as a reason for letting Talonflame stay in OU. He doesn't buy it. As things stand, Talonflame isn't getting banned anytime soon. That isn't going to stop Thug from doing what he can to speed up the process... though that's just what he says that he's doing. It's quite possible that, on some level of his subconscious, he realizes that Talonflame is never going to be banned and is simply playing the "Fight for Balance" Card in order to vent his fury against the hellish avian.